Arizona weekly enterprise., 1887-04-23
THE CzAR's BAsViLE.
Pictures of the ASlserabIas in the Fortress
 of St. Peter and St. Paul

ANNN sAs III N44tth 1 ltitSS lAlGt hOthlAS W etS so long confined, is huge, hideous and slabsided, and surmounted by thin and tapering spire that looks like the end of a Brobdingnagian syringe. The fortress is in the center of the city, and faces the imperial palace. During the day it is in part q public thorough fare, and peoHle pass through mar row delile of gloomy and tortuous vaults, where heavily armed sentinels march to and fro, and stone slabs in niches hold aloft burning tapers. But at nightfall all is closed, and when darkness covers the capital and the quays of the Neva are all aglow with gasliQhts, the prison here dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul remains shroud- ed in gloom like some huge nav, ever ready to swallow up all that is best and nob.est of the unhappy land which it curse With it's presence. Round the fortress rejgns a deep silence; but four times in every hour the big clock in the syringe-shaped spire chimes a psalm tune in praise of God and the czar! No wonder that men who were taught in their childhood that to disObey the po- tentate was to dishonor the Creator should have learned to detest the one and repudiate the other.
 If those hoary walls of the Russian bastile could speak, what tales they might tell. Since its foundation the fortress has been the cAief political prison of the empire. In past times the inmates were mostly court offenders on their way to Siberia or the scaffold. One of these was the wretched Alexis, son of Peter the Great, and heir pre- sumptive to the throne. Visitors are still shown the cell where, after being put to the torture, he was put to death by order of his father. But for we'll nigh 100 years there have been neither paace plots nor coup d etat, and from the beginning of the century of 1925 the fortress prison was closed. Then it opened to receive the Decemberists, the flower of the Russian nobility, who had tried, by opposing the accession of Nicholas to the throne, to overthrow autocracy and establish in it's stead a constitutional regime. In his reign there was little open discontent; he kept it down, crushed it out of sight, but even the strength of despots must yield to death, and the whirlwind he sowed was reaped Dy his son. The fortress Is now flied with unfortunatos. During the last twenty years thousands have entered its gloomy portals, and as fast as they perish or depart the great army of mi;erables is reinforced by fresh victims.
 Most of them only remain for time, either pending their trial or until they are removed to a central prison or de- ported to Siberia. But there are some whose fate is still more terrible. zhere are. prisoners who have never jDeen tried and never will bo-men and wo- men-who are kept in prison eenerally for years, often for life, simply by or der of the Czar. One Is an ex-oiiicer of the Imperial Guard by the name of CAevitch. It is said that the late Elm peror, who was of an amorous disposi- ton, made the sister of Chevitch his mistress and that the young officer stepped out of the ranks at a review and cried to the tyrant, lko Victor ' Hugo's Saint Vailier:" Sire, you have done ill." For thA oIense he was doomed to lifelong Imprisonment in the Alexis revelin, and iS now a raving lunatic. Wayfarcrs who pass by at midnight sometimes hear hiz frig htlul crles and maniacal laughter, and then they shudder and hasten away. for the ground on which they tread is accursed. In another case ment, dying of consumption, is wo- man whose identity is as great mys- tery as the man In the iron mask. h Neither the jailors nor her fellow-pris- | oners know either her name or the nat are of her crime. She is a number, and nothing more. What terrible tragedy must be hidden in that woman's heart, f it still beatsl
 The easements are cells five paces long and three wide equal to about seven and half feet by four and hall feet-dens into which a little light struggles through Q strongly barred slit. The walls steam with moisture. Fov furniture the inhabitant has 8 straw mattress aud thin quilt, jug, the maze Of 9 saint, and pail which serves for all purposes and remains there day and night. The air of sucE place, surely one of the dark places of the earth, besides being cold anc damp, must be unspeakably foul. But even worse than dampness and foulnes: and gloom is the solitude to which the prisoners are condemned, for the fort ress is organized on the strictest cellu lar system. Every possible precautior is taken to prevent them from commu nicating with each other. They never meet, never speak to each other; arc not even allowed to exchange wore wih their jailors. 4 warden is forbid den under severe penalties to answer ; question, however meaningless or in nocent. To prevent him from obtain ing favors or information, either by cajolefy or collision, the turnkeys arr made to visit the cells in couples anC to prevent prisoners from communicat ing with each other by knocks on thu walls, every alternate cell is ether al
 together untenantei or oc. Upied by gendarme.
 Once day the door is opened, anc
 the wardens signify to the inhabtan by gesture that it is the hour for ex
 ercise. Silently he rises from his littl
 bed and follows his custodians into
 narrow yard so hemmed in by higl
 walls as to seem like the bottom of
 well. Here he paces to and fro for tn,
 allotted timax like wi.d beast in
 cage, and is then led back 10 his den a
 silently as he was brought out I'm prison is full of people, yet for ever,